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Well, I call it new, but I'm really just transferring everything in my 30 setup over to the 50 which used to be a fw high tech planted tank. It will be a bare bottom tank for ease of cleaning, and I doubt much new stuff will go on here after the move.

I'll start out with the equipment. This tank won't have a sump. I'm really going for "how easy can I make it on myself to keep this sucker clean?" I don't want to drill it, and I don't want a HOB overflow. I'm thinking about DIYing a large aquaclear as a HOB fuge, but I'm not sure about that yet. I will also run a fluval 204 for phosguard and carbon when necessary....like once a month or whatever.

So the flow will be provided by two koralia 2's which each provide 600gph there or thereabout, two maxijet 600's, and two aquaclear 300's for over 2,000 gallons per hour total water movement. For you lazies, that's over 40 times an hour. The maxijet and aquaclear powerheads will be on a wave maker for a little motion in my ocean.

I'll keep the same lights, 4 39w T5HO. And this brings me to my first set of new pics. I built a completely new canopy that's actually decent looking. It will have a couple of hinges for easy access to feed and reach in if something falls over, and to make switching bulbs out TONS easier than my old fixture. So have a gander....it's not done yet, so that means there will be more pics, yay!







I want everything moved over by tuesday night, so stay tuned.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Looks fancy

I like the "Keep it simple" idea... dunno how well it'll work out in practice, though. Are you going to do an auto topoff? If so, where are you going to put it in the tank?

The way I see it, there's a reason that people have sumps and more complicated stuff... but I think you'll be able to pull this off just fine with out one

Good luck!

Btw, the comp boxes are a nice touch in the first pic

lol, proof my new computer exists!

Thanks for the reply. You are right, there are good reasons for sumps and whatnot. But I'll be keeping the fish load really light: just my two occ clowns, clown goby, and wheeler's goby. If it works out really well I might get another flasher wrasse in a couple months, but they are expensive....so who knows.

The ATO is something I'm going to be working on in the next few days. I do have one and plan to somehow affix it to the tank. It'll probably involve the use of my newly built canopy, and some trial and error. I've been recently dosing kalk with it and really do enjoy that auto calcium and topoff deal. Makes it easy for me. I'll somehow figure out how to do that again.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Looks great Matt. Cant wait for more pics.

Lookin good Matty Cant wait to see it up and running.

Whew....it's all over to the 50. It was tough going on my day off. I'll get some pics tomorrow.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Alrighty, thanks for the interest everyone and rare post from DRO .

I have some pics as promised:


New hardware attached:


Open with lights....prelim velcro as mounting system. I'll let you know how it goes:


And a full tank/stand/canopy shot:


Here's just the tank, lights on. It's still a bit cloudy....I think I need to toss the skimmer in there to help out.


So far I really like the rockwork, it's nice and open. I'm hoping it will trap very little debris. It onnly took 2 hours to get a working scape with all the corals already attached to the rock. I was wiped out last night. I still have to change the background over to black. That will hopefully make the korallias near invisible.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Very nice Matt. Great looking tank

looking good matty

do you/what kind of skimmer do you have on this tank now youve gone sumpless?

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''All the clown fish and yellow tangs in the world cant save you now!''

the rock stack looks cool. Are you going to keep the corals on the bottom or are you going to attach them later?

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Alex- I have my old in sump skimmer sitting inside the tank for now. I'm unsure if I'm going to mod the skimmer I currently have to hang on the back, or if I'm going to try going skimmerless. Both directions will involve a lot of work.

Desiredusername- Some of the corals are going to stay on the glass, just as I had many in the sand in my old tank. There are a few I'm going to put on the rockwork though, like the torch coral in the lower right corner.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

because you used an overflow box previously, couldnt you just take that whole sump setup and put it on the new tank, would make it much easier for you longterm especially having a fuge. Also the skimmer would be out of the way, making for more aesthetic appeal.

what made you go bare bottom?

also what do you think of the koralias?

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''All the clown fish and yellow tangs in the world cant save you now!''

The 30g tank wouldn't fit in the stand I have for the 50. I'd have to make something custom, or buy a 29g tank or something like that. Plus I wanted to keep the setup as simple as possible.....not to mention the eyesore that the overflow box was.

I really like the koralias, they really kick around some water. We got them in at work and I get them at cost. They are an incredibly easy way to get great flow spread out. No drilling for closed loops, no overflow boxes, and only a few plugs.

I've also decided to go skimmerless and keep up with weekly water changes. Yeah, normally it would be a bad thing, but I have a really low stocking level and feed lightly. Tests today before the water change showed zero nitrAtes and phosphates. Calcium was 430ppm and the ALK was 3 meq/l. I'll keep my eye on the params for a while to get a feeling for the setup and its needs.

I went bare bottom because my sand had turned into a cesspool. I had been doing 25% water changes weekly concentrating on all the sand vac'ing, but I couldn't keep it clean and I was starting to get algae problems. Especially with any of the corals on the sand bed. This is all without feeding the tank in two months. My poor little goby was getting really thin. It was a chore instead of a joy, and I thought this way might help.

With all the water flow in the tank I've found the two spots that detritus gets a chance to settle in. I'm going to pull it out weekly, maybe more often since I can focus on the bad spots instead of vac'ing an entire sand bed. My water change took me 15 minutes tops today. All in all I like the new set up a lot and the corals are looking way healthier and I already notice a difference in algae. It's a very simplified setup, and I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but I think it will work better for me than my old setup, but I guess time will tell.

If I were to redo my old setup, I'd only put 1/4 inch sand in the display, and a fishless sump/fuge with only sand and cheatomorpha no rock. Skimmer too I guess. I'd also have a lot more current in the display than I did originally. More like what I had before the switch over to the 50.

whew....long post. That's all g'night.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

ok so all up youve lost 10g of system volume and a skimmer and a fuge but gained a bigger display and some uber cool pumps and doing more regular water changes.

have you put the HOBs or the Maxijets in yet? i cant find them

have you thought about
adding more live rock?
diying the canister turning it into a fuge?
making it look blue instead of yellow?

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''All the clown fish and yellow tangs in the world cant save you now!''

You've summed it up OK. I don't think I lost any water volume though. The sump was always a couple inches low, as a sump should be. So I think I'm about equal with water volume. I've also lost one fish....the jawfish. He wouldn't be happy in a bare bottom tank.

I did put the maxi jets in. They are behind the rockwork on a wave timer to ensure gunk doesn't settle behind the rocks where I can't get it.

I haven't put the HOB on yet. I'm undecided between just using the canister instead. And I have thought about DIY a canister fuge, but I never thought one led light could support cheatomorpha, so I don't think I'll end up doing that. I'm leaning toward the HOB due to how easy it will be to clean.

There's plenty of rock IMO and I don't want any more. I think it looks great open like that compared to the wall it used to be. I have around 50-60 lbs. It was too much in the 30, caused dead spots I think. In this tank the open framework will increase performance I think.

About the light....I think it's pretty blue right now. Maybe that was my camera. The actinics are a little old, so maybe it's time to replace those. I'll probably switch out the one daylight color for another 12,000K so it will be 2 actinics and 2 12,000K. That should be pretty blue. But talking about replacing bulbs is talking about money about $60 with the discount.....so we'll see when that happens.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

good point with canister fuge how would you light the fuges?

now if im not mistaken you have a sump pump thought about making a surge device? Would work great considering your going sumpless, would also be great for your sps...

what are the dimensions of the 50G?

you using real salt water or NSW?

have you thought about putting rowalith in your fluval as well as the carbon and phosgaurd? just for a little bit more buffering capacity

lol looks like this might be like DROs tank log with liana being replaced by myself and dro being you just need to be as sw savvy as liana and im good lol

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''All the clown fish and yellow tangs in the world cant save you now!''

I've seen people light the canister fuges with submersible leds, but I just don't think one or two led's would keep cheato alive. That's just thoughts on the matter. Ne real experience here.

I don't have any plans for a surge device....might be the auto top off (ato) that you may be thinking about. I have a float switch and will use that to run a pump in a little bucket to topp off evap with kalk for calcium supplements.

The 50 is 36 X 18 X 20. Not exactly sure the height is 20, but the rest I know for sure.

Not sure what rowalith is, but it sounds more expensive than my two part additives which buffer the water just fine. I'll stick to the carbon and phosguard.

I make my sw from RO/DI and reef crystals. It seems to work ok for me. I don't have a source for NSW and think that quality will always be questionable with it since I didn't filter it personally.

Our discussion is a little like theirs, being there's only two of us in on it......but my tank is sure nothing like DRO's .

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Rowalith is pretty cheap but since your already using buffers, carbon and phosguard should work well then

example of what i mean by surge device

oh yeah i forgot you had an ro unit

probably a stupid question but are you using a heater? i cant find a cord for it in the pic.

have you put the black background in yet, will make it look alot better imo?

im begining to like the sound of this setup, not flash but stable and if you can keep up with regular maintenance it looks like it will turn into a stunner!

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''All the clown fish and yellow tangs in the world cant save you now!''

It's a really cool idea, those surge devices. The only problem is that they are really ugly. If I had a tank room I would consider doing that, but to have a piece of equipment like that in my room would be gross.

I haven't put in a heater yet. It's been warm here and the tank has been consistently warmer than I want it anyways (78-79F), so there hasn't been a need for one. I'll get one in a couple weeks. I'll get a stealth heater, they are all black so will match the background when clean.

Speaking of clean I bought some distilled vinegar to clean future coralline algae off my equipment so it will continue to blend into the background. I haven't gotten around to flipping the background, but I will do some work this weekend and that should be included. I really like how the blue looks, but it shows the equipment really bad and draws a little attention away from the tank. So yeah, I think black looks better.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

you could save abit in electricity if you got a jager heater instead but it wouldnt look as good

yeah, they are pretty ugly, if youve got a big enough hood though they can be very effective

nice, make sure to post some comparison shots of the blue and the black

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''All the clown fish and yellow tangs in the world cant save you now!''